The final episode of BBC1’s Sunday night hit Call The Midwife will be shown half an hour later than planned to avoid a schedule clash with Coronation Street.

Late arrival: Call The Midwife’s final episode will be shown half an hour later to avoid clashing with Coronation Street (Picture: BBC)

The show which has been a surprise hit with viewers, is normally shown at 8pm on Sunday evenings.

However the series finale on February 19 has been switched to 8:30pm after ITV slipped an episode of Corrie into that slot, following speculation from BBC chiefs that it was done in a bid to snatch viewers from the show.

ITV has claimed it needed to move the episode from its usual Thursday night slot due to the live coverage of Manchester City’s Europa League tie with Porto next week.

But the move has reportedly left Beeb bosses fuming, suggesting that the network could have found an alternative place in the schedule, such as a double bill of episodes on the Friday night.

Coronation Street is being moved to make way for live football coverage (Picture: PA)

‘Call The Midwife has been the standout hit of the year,’ a BBC insider said, ‘and it’s both surprising and disappointing for viewers that ITV were prepared to sacrifice an episode of Coronation Street just to damage its audience.’

However a spokesperson for ITV denied there had been a deliberate clash, saying it was simply a case of screening Corrie at the first similar slot that was available.

Call The Midwife, which stars Miranda Hart as one of a group of midwives in 1950s London, has been pulling in average audiences of around nine million since it made its debut last month.